Canon x300 MCT custom media type and PS plugin potenially serious bug

[shewhorn]

I've been creating custom media types for the papers I've been using...

HFA William Turner
HFA Museum Etching
HFA German Etching
HFA Sugar Cane
HFA Fine Art Pearl
Crane Museo Silver Rag
Harman Gloss Baryta Warmtone
Proofline Metallic
Canson Platine Fibre Rag

For each paper I've been creating 5 different media types. All media types for each paper are identical with the exception of Maximum Ink Usage. For each type I've been selecting a different max ink usage... low, medium low, medium (labeled "standard" in the MCT), medium high, and high.

From there I have been printing out a chart (one for each media type so 5 per paper type), scanning them in and then evaluating the profiles.

Up until yesterday I've had no issues, everything has been predictable. Yesterday for the first time I noticed that in the IPF8300 plugin, when I switched the media type to medium (standard) for ANY media type (I've built media types based on Fine Art Textured, Fine Art Bright 330, Fine Art Watercolor, Premium Semigloss 280, etc.... the point is it happens for all of them), the "Perform Print in Preview" check box becomes available.

As far as I know, this absolutely should NOT be available unless you have an output profile selected. This is clearly not the case as I'm printing targets and have "None (no color correction)" selected.

Can anyone verify this behavior? Perhaps this is the first time I'm noticing it but I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before.

Why am I sure? Because the behavior of the profiles being built were predictable up until today. I'll use some hypothetical numbers... Let's say for gamut volume, 10 is the highest gamut volume you could ever have. Normally if I create a profile and check out the Gamut Volume for each low, medium low, medium, medium high, and high based media type the gamut volume might behave as follows:

Low - 4
Medium Low - 5
Medium - 6
Medium High - 7
High - 6.25

Low - 7
Medium Low - 8
Medium - 9
Medium High - 8.75
High - 8.5

Low - 5
Medium Low - 6
Medium - 7
Medium High - 8
High - 9

So those are the behaviors I usually see. FWIW, I've actually run these tests on more papers than the ones listed above (those are the ones I decided that I wanted to offer). Anyhow, what I witnessed today was the following behavior:

Low - 5
Medium Low - 6
Medium - 9.25
Medium High - 8
High - 9

That just doesn't seem right. This was with Fine Art Watercolor as the basis for the media type on Hahnemuhle Sugar Cane.

It's possible that Fine Art Watercolor could be an issue but again, I find it strange that the media type created with maximum ink usage set to medium causes "Perform Proof in Preview" to appear with no ICC profile assigned as being a little suspect (and yes, it makes a difference in what you see in the preview if you toggle it on and off, something that should NOT happen with no ICC profile loaded).

Now, what's worth noting that's significant is that a few days prior I called Canon support because I had a custom media type in the printer itself (for Crane Museo Silver Rag) that did not have any entry in the Media Configuration Tool. In order to correct that Canon support had me reset the printer, and resync the media types. All of the charts I printed prior to that (even with the medium max in layout) behaved predictably.

Has anyone else noticed this behavior?

Cheers, Joe

[shewhorn]

Here's some screen shots. The first and second shots were based on Fine Art Watercolor for the media type and the max ink usage was set to medium (Standard). The 3rd screen shot was also based upon Fine Art Watercolor but with max ink usage set to medium high. Notice that in all of them, the output profile is set to none. Also notice that Perform Proof in Preview is available only in the medium one. Also note that the second image has the preview box checked and the colors change (as if a profile were applied which shouldn't be the case because it's clearly set to none).

[shewhorn]

Some more info... I called Canon again and spoke with someone who seemed a little more knowledgeable who had a suggestion to try something I hadn't tried. So a little background. I mentioned I started noticing this recently after having called support to help me remove a ghost media type from the printer itself. The procedure they had me do was to go into setup and reset media types on the printer, and then to "Add Genuine Media" in the MCT and click update. Although this was in add genuine it resynced all the custom media types I'd built. He suspects that using this method to reload the custom media types may be presenting a problem. It was certainly more convenient but what he suggested was to go in to the add custom section, and reload the custom media types individually.

Not the route I wanted to go but it's better than what's going on now if it works. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

Cheers, Joe

[shewhorn]

I seem to have resolved the issue by uninstalling everything, reinstalling and re-uploading my custom media types. Very strange though.

Cheers, Joe

[John Hollenberg]

Thanks for the follow-up.  Someone else may run into a similar problem and the resolution of your problem will be helpful.

[keith_cooper]

I had a minor glitch yesterday, where I'd accidentally left the print plugin open (in CS5) during some profile target printing on our 8300

The MCT lost the ability to talk to the printer (stuck progress bars)

Fortunately, by closing everything and restarting both computer (Mac 10.6) and printer, things seem to have cleared.

I'm not too bothered, since leaving several bits of software competing for the same hardware resource is often a potential trouble spot.

I get the same problem with my i1 and iSis when I've been using old and 'new' software in the same session. The new drivers don't always release the resources correctly (it took several attempts when using an i1pro with the True B&W software for linearisation)

I just have to remember not to be too clever in multitasking, when hardware in involved :-)